A little bit of excitement for a holiday Monday morning. We were watching recently discovered bluejay birds nest within sight of our living room window. Then we heard a sound in the chimney. Maybe a bird trapped? I opened the rear damper so it could see the light down at the fire box. We had to wait a few minutes for it to make its way down. I opened the back damper of the stove and it made its way into the fire box…which still had old ashes in it. The bird didn’t appear to be too dirty. Don’t know what type of bird it was though. It was mostly dark with slight hints of a beautiful luminescent green.

Our fireplace was WETT Certified installed. Everything done right and approved by the insurance company. The unit has its own air intake and a chimney that goes straight up. The problem is that the after gases do not burn off properly as this little video shows. We have had the stove for 6 years now, its always done this. [Edit note Sep 05 2013: To clarify, not every time but its gotten worse the last couple years.]